C'mon guys, haven't you seen Rocky? No, not the squirrel, Rocky Balboa. Anand is a fighter, and will retain his title - Rocky style! Who cares if he slacked off in a couple tournaments - he just took a break. And why not, he's the WCC. My money's on Anand for one more!

The only problem with the double round robin candidates tournament is that the winner basically is winning at least one million dollars because this is the minimum amount the loser of the World Chess Championship wins, and this can be a source of corruption by some players that might get together, for example the three Rusians: Kramnik, Grischuk and Svidler, and decide to let Kramnik win both his games against Grischuk and Svidler and this could easily decide the first place and new challenger for the WCC, and they can decide to split the one million dollars, How? Easily, Grischuk and Svidler will be in Kramnik's team that helps him during the WCC, and Kramnik will pay them $300,000 each for their help and this will be perfectly legal.

The tournament was truly superb on every front; the best in my experience, since Fisher Spassky. Brilliant job, the Brits.

The Candidates will be intense! Of course Carlsen is super fravourite, but never discount Kramnik, who is as good as he ever was, and Aronian, in form, is of course utterly outstanding. And there are a few other good players competing as well, who will have their own ideas about who should win.

The double round robin guaranties that Carlsen will be the challenger for the world title because Carlsen might have one bad game but after sixteen rounds he will end up winning the candidates tournament because his winning ratio is much better than all of the other candidates.

FIDE knows that is bad for them to have a World Champion that is ranked #7 in the world and as soon as they can have Magnus Carlsen as World Champion the better for FIDE because it will prove that the FIDE rating system is an accurate measure of the strength of players.

This was such an amazingly awesome tournament! I've been watching / playing chess since the Fischer boom in the '70's and you know what? It just gets better and better. Take a note, USCF and America ... let's copy what the Brits are doing here ... great tournament, with a great cause! Chess in Schools! The players, the commentary, the showcase, the cause. It all works.

Why does anand look so serious? Sure he is walking into a room where is sucessor surely is but why doesnt he smile. Another question, why is there another candidates tournament and world chess championship the year after the previous world chess championship. I dont understand this now quicker cycle than usual...

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